Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

By Benjamin Franklin

Page 104

inadmiring them. Among the rest, I became one of his constant hearers,his sermons pleasing me, as they had little of the dogmatical kind,but inculcated strongly the practice of virtue, or what in thereligious stile are called good works. Those, however, of ourcongregation, who considered themselves as orthodox Presbyterians,disapprov'd his doctrine, and were join'd by most of the old clergy,who arraign'd him of heterodoxy before the synod, in order to have himsilenc'd. I became his zealous partisan, and contributed all I couldto raise a party in his favour, and we combated for him awhile withsome hopes of success. There was much scribbling pro and con upon theoccasion; and finding that, tho' an elegant preacher, he was but apoor writer, I lent him my pen and wrote for him two or threepamphlets, and one piece in the Gazette of April, 1735. Thosepamphlets, as is generally the case with controversial writings, tho'eagerly read at the time, were soon out of vogue, and I questionwhether a single copy of them now exists.[76]

[76] See "A List of Books written by, or relating to Benjamin Franklin," by Paul Leicester Ford. 1889. p. 15.--Smyth.

During the contest an unlucky occurrence hurt his cause exceedingly.One of our adversaries having heard him preach a sermon that was muchadmired, thought he had somewhere read the sermon before, or at leasta part of it. On search, he found that part quoted at length, in oneof the British Reviews, from a discourse of Dr. Foster's.[77] Thisdetection gave many of our party disgust, who accordingly abandonedhis cause, and occasion'd our more speedy discomfiture in the synod. Istuck by him, however, as I rather approv'd his giving us good sermonscomposed by others, than bad ones of his own manufacture, tho' thelatter was the practice of our common teachers. He afterwardacknowledg'd to me that none of those he preach'd were his own;adding, that his memory was such as enabled him to retain and repeatany sermon after one reading only. On our defeat, he left us in searchelsewhere of better fortune, and I quitted the congregation, neverjoining it after, tho' I continu'd many years my subscription for thesupport of its ministers.

[77] Dr. James Foster (1697-1753):--

"Let modest Foster, if he will excel Ten metropolitans in preaching well."